


hey i just met you, and this is crazy

by letsgetthisbread



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gay panicking. So much gay panicking, Idiots in Love, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Viner and Tiktoker AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 07:10:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16635275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgetthisbread/pseuds/letsgetthisbread
Summary: The first thing Chaewon did when she saw Yerim, the super popular Vine star, was to ask her for a collab on TikTok. This is how people start conversations, right?In which Chaewon and Yerim are both anxious in love and their friends do so much wingmanning.





	hey i just met you, and this is crazy

**Author's Note:**

> yerim is literally the in-universe equivalent of thomas sanders and chaewon is an impulsive but honest fool.  
> i started writing this at 1 am and halfway thru writing this i realised this would be better as a twitter au but anyways, that how it be sometimes. no i have no idea how tiktoks work  
> happy early birthday gowon! this is for u winks

“Oh my god, aren’t you from that backpack kid vine?”

The words end up slipping out of Chaewon mouth that she’s basically shouting them. She quickly clasps her hands around her mouth, not expecting how her voice raised. The other girl turns back at her, smiling brightly. What are the chances that she runs into an internet celebrity just outside the convenience store?

The stranger doesn’t even get to respond before Chaewon continues on babbling out the first thing on her mind, brain short-circuiting.

“D-do you want to do a TikTok with me?”

“A what.” The stranger’s face falls, confused at this sudden turn of events. Chaewon wishes the earth would give out underneath her and swallow her up once and for all. So today she’s really going to embarrass herself in front of a popular person, huh.

“You know… Musically, they rebranded and it became TikTok, uh... Look!”

She fumbles to pull out her phone to stick at the other girl’s face, showing her account and videos. She realises the displayed video is the one she danced to One Direction and quickly scrolls to another one, embarrassed.

The popular girl seems to have sensed the awkward atmosphere and let out a small, adorable giggle. It only comes to Chaewon just now that she probably should look up at the person she’s talking to. So she does just that, just to have her breath caught in her throat.

The girl standing in front of her is so cute, with the way her eyes smile along with her laughing. Chaewon lets out a laugh too, for some fucking reason, and now they’re both fake laughing at each other. This is so weird.

Abort. Abort.

“IhopeyouconsideritIthoughtyou’refunny.” Chaewon chokes out and with a quick bow, she removes herself from the whole situation, leaving the other girl stunned.

 

\--

 

“You met the legendary backpack kid and all you said was _pls collab bro_?” Yeojin guffaws. Chaewon buries her face in her hands. “And then you freaked her out so bad you had to run away?”

“You know you’d do the same thing, asshole.”

“Ok true that, but no need for the hecking profanities.”

Chaewon rolls her eyes. “If you insist on being talked to like a 5 year-old.” Haseul’s influence is rubbing off on Yeojin, who might as well be Haseul’s Mini-Me by this point.

“As if you don’t already treat me like one.” Yeojin rolls over on her bed, probably going back to her Pokemon game, mumbling something about Chaewon being a stale french fry.

Babysitting your friend’s baby sister is a mistake, Chaewon thinks. Even though the job pays well, spending time with Yeojin is either a hit or a miss in general. They have similar tastes in video games (anything Nintendo) but Yeojin is loud and energetic and Chawon is… not. It only takes her phone’s notification tone to pull her attention away from the situation and she happily takes up the offer.

 

**_Yerimspen followed you on TikTok!_**

 

Wait, pause. Why does that name sound familiar.

“Hey Yeojin?”

“What do you want. Haseul’s gonna be supes mad if I have to chaperone you on a McDonalds joyride at 10 pm again.” Chaewon pouts.

“Does the name yerimspen sound familiar to you?”

Yeojin drops her 3DS (that is heavily decorated in Pikachu stickers, Chaewon notes). It falls to her bed with a soft thump, Pikachu face down.

“The backpack kid yerimspen or… the backpack kid yerimspen?”

“There are _two_ backpack kids?” Chaewon squints.

Yeojin lunges out of her bed to tackle her, nearly knocking her off her beanbag and pulling the phone out of her hands. “HEY-- WATCH IT TWERP.”

“Aaand followed! When a big acc follow you, you gotta follow back!”

“This isn’t Vine or even Twitter, stupid, _I’m_ the big acc! The account is brand new, we don’t even know if it’s really her--”

Chaewon’s phone buzzes again in Yeojin’s hand, cutting her sentence short.

 

**_Yerimspen followed you on Twitter!_**

 

“Oh, so she’s real-real huh.” Yeojin adds, and Chaewon quickly shoots her a glare and reaches for her phone. Unfortunately, her hand wasn’t fast enough to stop the little gremlin from typing _oh em gee_ i _love you_ into the DM text bar and sending it to poor yerimspen. Chaewon lets out a loud screech as Yerim’s chat bubble immediately pops up, typing back a response.

 

 **crispymcnuggets** : oh em gee i love you

**[yerimspen has accepted your DM request.]**

**yerimspen** : oh?

 **yerimspen** : I love you too :0

 **yerimspen** : sorry if I’m wrong, this is the tiktok girl, right?

 

Chaewon pulls Yeojin up by the collar of her shirt and begins shaking her violently. “You little Oompa Loompa LOOK at what you’ve DONE??”

“Yo chill, it’s not like you’d ever slide into her DM after what happened today right?” As much as she wanted to kill Yeojin right now, the younger girl has a point. Chaewon is way too much of a wuss to even consider saying hi to her, the legendary Choi Yerim.

“Anyway can you drop me, I need to go back to chaining for my shiny Zubat.”

Chaewon rolls her eyes and drops the smaller girl. “You know shiny Zubats are, like, snot green right?”

“Yes, BUT shiny Crobats are pink and they are adorable.” Yeojin huffs and with that, she’s back to burying her nose in her Pokemon game. Chaewon hears the distinct cry of a Zubat (and grumbling) and she hopes Yeojin never finds one of those green bastards. Now to deal with the mess laid out in front of her.

 

 **crispymcnuggets** : yes it is!!!!

 **crispymcnuggets** : sorry the kid i was babysitting stole my phone dsgkhdsglkh

 **crispymcnuggets** : whats up haha!!!

 **yerimspen** : :D i was worried i might have gotten the wrong account

 **yerimspen** : i only caught your username briefly when you showed me your videos

 **yerimspen** : but crispymcnuggets is very memorable! everyone loves chicken nuggets

 

Chaewon doesn’t have the heart to tell Yerim her friend Sooyoung chose the @ for her after she lost a bet. The reasoning apparently was because ‘she just looks like a chicken nugget with her chicken blond hair come here let Sooyoungie unnie pet her crispy ass hair’, in Sooyoung’s exact words.

(In her defense, Sooyoung was also drunk as hell when this happened.)

 

 **crispymcnuggets** : it’s random and silly but i’m glad you like it lmao

 **crispymcnuggets** : so what’s the story with your @, yerimspen??

 **yerimspen** : i just really like glitter pens and my name is yerim :9 simple right?

 **yerimspen** : what’s your name btw?

 **crispymcnuggets** : chaewon

 **yerimspen** : nice to meet u chaewon :>

 

Chaewon finds herself squealing and doing a little dance before collapsing back down onto her beanbag. Yeojin doesn’t even bother looking up from her Pokemon game, still focused on Zubats, which she counts as another win. Her phone vibrates once more in her hand, the notification stopping her tiny celebration dead in its tracks.

 

 **yerimspen** : i really want to try out tiktok! lets meet up and collab :3c

 

“Park Chaewon can you please STOP screaming. I’M the loud one in this family, not you.”

 

\--

 

This is everything Chaewon did not sign up for.

Normal people would freeze up or ask for signatures when they meet their favorite internet celebrity, not shamelessly plug their TikTok. Yet it landed her a meetup (not! date! as she’s repeated to Yeojin many times) with Yerim so she can’t tell if she did something good or not.

Dressed in her favorite comfy t-shirts and shorts, Chaewon suddenly felt like she underdressed in this cafe. Maybe she should have worn a button up and blazer? Wait it’s not like it’s a job interview, right? What if yerimspen is wearing a button up and blazer--

The windchime near the cafe entrance rings, bringing her back to reality. Chaewon’s breath hitches when she sees Yerim walks through the door, sunshine bathing on her brown hair. Yerim is wearing a soft brown cardigan, using her sweater paw to hold the door open (Chaewon feels herself melt through the floor). After her enters a tall blonde girl in a Balenciaga hat, the two seem to be laughing about something.

“There she is! Chaewon~” Yerim spots her quickly and waves from the front door, bouncing towards her table with the other girl shuffling to follow behind her. They are barely acquaintances at this point but Chaewon can’t help but smile back at the brunette girl’s infectious positivity. “This is my friend Jinsoul!”

“Oh-- hi.” Jinsoul looks taken aback, not expecting to be in the spotlight so soon. “Hi, nice to meet you. I’m just here to make sure Yerim’s new friend is actually, a real person, y’know.”

Yerim cutely pouts in response. “She just thinks I’m too trusting. I can be nice but I’m not naive.” Chaewon starts screaming internally, she must have really come off as an Internet creeper.

“I-- I didn’t mean anything bad-- I-” Chaewon racks her brain to think of a good excuse that doesn’t make her sound creepy or pathetic. Any of her social skills seem to have flown out the window with how Jinsoul is glaring at her.

“...I just really… like TikTok? Yerimspen is super cool? So I asked? For a collab?”

Jinsoul bursts out in laughter after hearing that, her stern face quickly melting away. “My god you are so honest.” She turns to Yerim, whispering to her behind her hand in a very not-subtle way. “She’s such a loser I think she’s forreals. You’re good here.”

Chaewon stares at her dumbfounded; surprised that the taller blonde thought she can’t hear her, or even that she is capable of laughing.

“It takes one to know one." Yerim snaps back with a comeback with ease, and now they’re both giggling.

“Alright, I’m gonna leave you two alone since I got stuff to do. Yerim, you know my phone number, call me if anything happens or if you need a lift back. Chaewon-ssi, if anything happens I’m coming for you.” Jinsoul does the ‘I’m watching you’ hand sign only to earn her a shove from Yerim, making her almost tumble out of her chair. “Ow alright alright.”

“Have fun on your date Yerimmie~” And with that, the other blond is out of the door.

Yerim has her back turned towards Chaewon as she waves goodbye, but she notices the tips of Yerim’s ears are flushed red. This isn’t a date… right? Yeojin did say that it might as well be. She’s on a maybe-date-maybe-not with Choi Yerim?

When Yerim turns back to look at her, eyes soft, Chaewon can feel her cheeks burning up too.

“Was… that your mom?” Her mouth runs before her brain can, again.

“Might as well be.” Yerim sighs, cheeks still red.

 

\--

 

“After you filmed it, you can choose some filters here.”

“Kinda like Instagram, huh? But some of the filters are so edgy…”

Yerim turns her phone slightly so the smaller girl can take a peek. Chaewon leans in closer, not noticing the way Yerim’s face slightly flush before she continues talking. “Look at this one! It looks straight out of a Markiplier video.”

The filter does, indeed, look straight out of a Markiplier video as it glitches red and blue across the screen. It even manages to make Yerim’s smiling face and her cup of tea look uncanny.

“You’re right.. It’s edgy.” Chaewon finds herself nodding along, mentally burying all of the TikToks she made using that filter.

The two of them plays around with the app for a while, starting out with cute poses which quickly turns to them pulling weird faces and sticking their tongue out. There is a relaxed atmosphere when they are together that she finds herself easily settling into, Chaewon notices. It is as if they have known each other for a while.

It feels like coming home.

Chaewon’s phone vibrates in her pocket and she makes the most difficult decision in her life, tearing her eyes away from the cute girl next to her and go look at her phone’s screen. The screen displays a text message from Haseul.

 

 **Haseul** : Hi Chae, would it be possible if you can look over Yeojin for a few hours right now? There’s an emergency at work and I don’t trust Yeojin to not burn down the house when left alone. :(

 

A sad emoji! Haseul must be really desperate.

Yeojin had once tried to make tteokbokki in the microwave once, a long time ago, and somehow managed to burn it to charcoal. Chaewon happened to be looking for a part-time job around that time. In a combination of all these events, her babysitting Yeojin just naturally fell into place.

Despite Haseul’s plea, Chaewon is prepared to leave her on read (fire hazards be damned) but her phone vibrates once more, begging for her attention.

 

 **Haseul** : I’ll pay you double for your time if you can make it. :(

 

...Damn capitalism for making her so money greedy.

Yerim must have noticed the change in her expression and is already looking at her, worry written all over her face. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah I’m good it’s just--” The blonde sighs. “I’m being asked to turn up for work right now but I really don’t want to interrupt us hanging out.”

Yerim gives her a small reassuring smile and squeezes their hands together and Chaewon wants to melt again.

“Why are you worrying about that, we can hang out another day.”

Chaewon can’t even bring herself to look at Yerim in the eyes, instead choosing to stare at a random tile on the floor. “Are we… friends?”

“Of course!” Yerim gives her a smile so bright she swears the sun pales in comparison. All she can do is stare back, awestruck. “I had fun today, let’s hang out another day.”

 

\--

 

“So how was your not-date with a mega-popular Viner.” Yeojin waggles her eyebrows, only to get a thrown cushion in the face, knocking her backward.

Chaewon does not have the energy to indulge her right now, especially how she is the reason the not-da-- _hangout_ was cut short.

“Alright alright, but I’ll be saying ‘I told you so’ after you guys start not-smooching on the third not-date.”

 _That’s it_. Chaewon picks up another cushion and _jumps_ on Yeojin, the younger girl screaming in fear.

 

\--

 

The moment she gets home Chaewon suddenly feels a wave of exhaustion hit her. The situation with Yeojin escalated to a full-blown pillow fight that only stopped when Haseul came home. So she quickly settles into bed and pulls out her phone to log on to the cursed bird app.

Yerim had posted her first TikTok, it’s one of the videos the pair filmed themselves making cute faces, and tweeted about it. As yerimspen has millions of followers, of course, her timeline has been freaking out and her notifications exploded.

Like what most normal human beings would do, Chaewon tabs to her private account and begins to lurk her indirects on Twitter.

 

’Was that nugget on yerim’s new upload?’

‘Oh my god I’d never expected these two are friends~ Now i ship yerimnugget? nugrim? nuggetpen lol’

‘#nuggetpen r so cute yall i cant lol’

 

Burying her face in her Snorlax pillow, Chaewon can’t help but let out a quiet scream. She knows fans grasp at straws all the time, especially with content creators being vaguely friendly towards each other (she herself has been shipped with a good amount of her friends). Ignoring the way her heart hurts, she wonders if the audience is onto something this time.

A notification pops up on her phone. She immediately sits up straight after reading the name of the sender.

 

 **yerimspen** : hey nugget :>

 **crispymcnuggets** : So you found out my internet name?

 **yerimspen** : yes! its cute just like you

 **crispymcnuggets** : haha. flattery wont get you anywhere

 **yerimspen** : its not! im just saying the truth :]

 

Chaewon hugs Snorlax closer to her chest, words swirling inside her head. The truth… what the hell was true anymore?

She decides to play Yerim’s guitar covers on Youtube to get her mind off of everything and calls it a night. Yet when the soft guitar playing fills her bedroom, her mind seems to get louder and louder.

She stays up all night, just recounting over and over her meetings with Yerim, all her words, and actions. Shit.

She might have a crush on a Viner.

 

\--

 

They have been talking every day these past few weeks, in which Chaewon has learned several new facts about the popular girl.

Yerim is a year younger than her, loves pink sweaters and collects glitter pens like they are going out of fashion (they are). She started Vine with her best friend Hyunjin but is now running a Youtube channel for song covers and vlogs. She’s talented on the guitar and wants to become a performer… is what her fans would tell you.

But it is these new and different sides of Yerim (that are not listed on her Wikia article) that keeps surprising Chaewon. She likes to sleep in on school days, yet always manages to catch the bus before it leaves. She’s not very good at Splatoon yet, but swears on her life that she’s “getting good”. She believes that she has one true lucky glitter pen which ends up being a fountain pen whose ink doesn’t even glitter, just because she gets good grades using it.

It is all so effortlessly _endearing_ to Chaewon, who finds herself chuckling quietly every time they text. It’s all so fascinating because it’s so _Yerim_.

A smile finds itself to her lips as she reads the other girl’s rambles, while she remains oblivious to her friends staring at her.

“She’s texting the Vine girl again.” Hyejoo pouts as she hands out plates of cut cake slides. “In the middle of my birthday party.” Chaewon doesn’t even bother to look up when a plate is placed in front of her. _She doesn’t bother to look up for triple chocolate cake_.

“You should text someone else during her birthday. It’s only a few days after yours.” Sooyoung pats Hyejoo sympathetically on the arm.

“I think she’d be too busy giggling over her celebrity crush to even notice.” Hyejoo puffs up her cheeks more, clearly wanting everybody’s attention on her big day. Jiwoo gives her a pat on the head.

“Alright curly fries, enough with the texting for tonight.” Sooyoung snatches Chaewon’s phone from her tiny hands with ease and sets it face down on the table. “You’re making the birthday girl sad, which is like, a federal crime.”

“But I haven’t finished typing--”

“Chae.” Hyejoo interrupts.

“--She’s gonna think I’m typing a really long essay.” Chaewon slumps back into her chair, pouty and going back on the defense.

“I’m sure she’s gonna _love_ to read it all then since you two have been attached at the hip,” Yeojin mumbles as she chews cake in her mouth. “Just ask her out on a second date already.”

“D-Date?? What do you mean, _second_ date, we haven’t even had our first?!” Yeojin stares back at her, deadpanning. _Oh_. “Shut up. You’re just tagging along for free food so your opinions don’t matter.”

Yeojin sticks out her tongue, reminding her that “she’s supposed to look after her today, not hang out with friends last minute so it’s just karma she has to bring her along”. Chaewon hates that she’s right.

“I think Yeojin has a point, you’ve been making googly heart eyes at your phone these past few weeks.” It’s Jiwoo’s turn to speak up this time. “Ask her out!” She coos, as if it is all so exciting.

“All in favor of Nugget asking the pen girl out and then not looking at her phone again for the rest of the night _and then_ footing the bill say aye!” Sooyoung slams her hands on the table, always the one who gets the most excited over peer pressure. _What was that about the bill?_ Three ‘aye’s comes quickly after and Chaewon feels a headache coming on. She picks up her phone again.

 

 **crispymcnuggets** : yeah and then i was like i’m g

 **yerimspen** : im gonna assume you died in a freak accident. gonna miss you chae :[

 **crispymcnuggets** : h

 **yerimspen** : sometimes i can still hear your voice :’[

 **crispymcnuggets** : sghjdsHGLKD JESUS its just my friends distracting me

 

(She feels her friends glaring bullets at her, and knows she can’t get out of this situation unless she actually complies. So she quickly types out the text before she can regret it.)

 

 **crispymcnuggets** : ANYWAY i’m free next monday.... do u wanna hang?

 **yerimspen** : ack sorry! I have a gig with hyunjin unnie that day ;;

 **crispymcnuggets** : gig?

 **yerimspen** : yeah, we are playing live music at a cafe. maybe you can come and have a cappuccino while we play? <3

 **crispymcnuggets** : sure why not <3

 **yerimspen** : <3 <3 <3

 

“I can’t believe she’s gonna spend her birthday staring at her crush across a Starbucks.” Yeojin who has been peeking at the conversation behind her shoulder speaks up, her voice booming in the small space.

“Whipped.” Hyejoo smirks. Sooyoung and Jiwoo are smiling too.

“Whipped.” Chaewon sighs.

 

\--

 

The cafe in question is busy, much busier than what Chaewon expected for a Monday afternoon. A kind waitress with Kahei on her nametag directed her to an empty seat, taking down her order (a latte and a scone) before leaving to tend to another table. The cafe is busy enough that the employees are constantly on their feet, not having time to linger around for long.

Are cafes always this loud? Shouldn’t they be like, quiet and cozy? Noting that the noise from customers almost drowns out the music, Chaewon remembers the reason why she came in the first place.

The two performers are sat away in a corner, tucked away from view. Surrounding them are some seriously intimidating stereo equipment, but they seem to only have their microphone and guitar plugged in.

Sitting on a stool, Yerim was playing the accompanying guitar to the singer, who she assumes is Hyunjin. They both seem caught up in the performance, their faces focused, looking at nothing in particular. It’s an expression she’s never seen on the younger girl’s face before, so it is… cute somehow.

It takes Chaewon a few seconds to recognize the song. _Around You_. It was one of the original songs posted on their joint Youtube account and Chaewon would be lying if she said it hasn’t lulled her to sleep many times before.

 

_Hey you, do you know my heart? These days, I’m like a child stealing glances at you and running away._

 

The words sting as she can’t look away from the girl strumming the guitar. The way her hair falling on her shoulder. How she’s wearing round glasses and soft features. The way her delicate hand expertly plucks the strings. It’s been a few weeks since Chaewon last saw her in person, but she looks beautiful all the same.

The song soon concludes and then comes the applause. It isn’t a standing ovation (though she thinks the song deserves that and more) but a few quiet claps here and there. The two performers smile, satisfied anyway.

“Do you have any requests?” Hyunjin asks.

There isn’t any response. Most of the patrons seem preoccupied with their own conversation, not paying attention to the duo on stage. While their smiles don’t seem to falter from the silence, Chaewon feels the urge to say something.

So she shoves her hand in the air like she’s answering a question in class.

“Y-Yes! Me!”

Yerim’s face lights up in recognition of the familiar voice. Hyunjin next to her also raises her head, eyes widening as if she recognizes her face too. Suddenly Chaewon feels out of breath, thrilled and afraid at the same time. “I-I-It’s my birthday today, can you si--”

“Oh! Let’s do a birthday serenade!” Hyunjin interrupts, forcefully shoving the microphone into her stage partner’s hands. Her eyes glint mischievously. “Yerim, you sing this time, you shouldn’t hog the guitar so much. You know how I love guitars.”

Yerim seems flustered at this turn of events, nearly losing her grip on the mic when she shrugs off the guitar to hand it to the older girl. Hyunjin doesn’t hesitate for a second as she tugs the guitar strap over her shoulder, quickly running her hand through the strings.

The first chord rings out through the cafe-- it’s the happy birthday song. As if on pure instinct, Chaewon pulls out her phone and begins recording. Yerim sings, her voice clear and bright, as she looks directly at the blonde.

Of all the people swarming the cafe, Chaewon feels like she’s the only person Yerim can see at this moment.

 

_Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you._

_Happy birthday dear Chaewon. Happy birthday to you._

 

The song earns them a round of polite applause from the patrons as of how people would react to hearing the birthday song in public. The performing duo quickly gives a half-bow and the cafe soon settles back into the busy atmosphere, but it feels less suffocating than initially was.

A latte and scone are placed on the table in front of her. She looks up fast enough to catch Kahei’s tiny smile before she leaves. Maybe this awfully loud cafe isn’t all that bad.

“Chaewonnie, any other song you want to be dedicated to you?” Yerim winks at her and Chaewon can’t help but giggle. Hyunjin has her head turned the other way, tuning the guitar strings.

“Wonderwall.”

Hyunjin does a spit-take laugh at that, obviously exposing her as listening into their conversation. Chaewon guesses nosy friends with bad humour are a universal constant.

“I’m not gonna do that. Anything else?”

“Anything’s fine if you’re singing it.”

The younger girl seems surprised (flustered?) at her sudden confidence, her cheeks turning pink in response. She fiddles with her microphone for a few seconds before settling on the next song to sing.

Chaewon smiles at Yerim fondly and presses the post button on the app. Twitter’s gonna have another field day with this video.

 

\--

 

“You didn’t tell me it was your birthday today.” Yerim pouts, tugging on the older girl’s sleeve cutely. “I could have canceled this and we could have gone to a bakery-- and I _know_ Hyunjin wouldn’t mind because she loves bread so much.”

Hyunjin who is packing up their equipment across the stage perks up at the mention of a bakery, nods along vigorously, making it clear that she would _have_ loved some bread.

Chaewon sighs, so this Hyunjin girl is eavesdropping in no matter what, huh.

“But gigs are good! You shouldn’t give up on something like this for me! You can put this in your CV!” The brunette girl doesn’t seem to be swayed, still biting on her lip guiltily.

“Um, how about this, let’s go on another, um, meetup at the bakery sometime! Just the two of us.” Chaewon is the one to give the younger girl a smile this time, almost reaching up to hold her face but she quickly catches herself mid-air, pulling the hand the _fuck_ down. NOPE. Yerim is just staring at her, probably trying to work out what to say next.

“Do you think we can exchange numbers? So you can call me,” Yerim pauses for a second, and then quickly adds a “when we meet up”.

Oh, what is she gonna do? Say no?

So hands trembling, Chaewon’s putting in her numbers in a cute girl’s phone who asked for it. Not in a million years would she expect this to happen. When her friends say she has no game, they mean it. She hands the phone back and for a second too long, their fingers touching halfway and lingering in the contact for a bit too long.

“I’ll call you.” She stutters out, her brain immediately screaming at her for making a promise she might not keep.

“I… I’ll look forward to that.” Holding her phone closer to her chest, Yerim mumbles, uncharacteristic of her.

 _She’ll look forward to it_ , Chae’s brain screams again.

 

\--

 

As expected, Twitter is pure chaos when she logs back on, since it was Yerim’s turn to cameo in Nugget’s newest TikTok. The Vine superstar was singing a birthday song to someone supposedly named Chaewon. Is Chaewon Nugget’s real name? Her followers are all freaking out at the sudden name drop after she’s stayed anonymous for so long.

“Y’know what. Mood.” Chaewon mutters as she flicks away from the app, opening Youtube to stream song covers instead.

Everything feels like it’s going too fast and too slow at the same time. By now Chaewon’s damned sure her feelings towards Yerim is romantic, like _romantic-romantic_ (she’s had weeks to introspect this bullshit), but still she doesn’t even know where to start.

She’s not a shining knight in armor, just a bumbling idiot that accidentally tripped and fell in love with an internet celebrity.

“ _The only person that can shine a light in my heart is me, the one and only_.” The Youtuber sings, and Chaewon catches herself humming along.

This is her favorite song, the one song that she’s used over and over in her videos.

Facing… myself. Facing my own truth.

Maybe if she somehow stumbled into this mess, she can stumble herself through it as well. Without much thinking, Chaewon grabs her phone, scrolling down to Yerim’s saved contact and pressing call. After all, she’s always been a messy person when she falls for someone else.

One ring. Maybe Chaewon’s pushing her luck. Two rings. Maybe Chaewon’s just _pushy_.

Yerim picks up the phone on the third ring, her voice soft and just a bit tired, as if she just woke up from a nap and Chaewon's heart _swells_. “...Hello? Chaewon?”

“Hey, Yerim. Sorry if I woke you up.”

“Mm, I wasn’t asleep. It’s only 5 pm.” Chaewon can’t help but smile at the girl’s very clearly tired voice, at how endearing adorable it is.

“It’s 7 pm, try again, dumbass.”

Silence and then a soft groan is the response to that. Chaewon smiles, patiently waiting for the other girl to wake up fully. It takes the younger girl a good few seconds before she pipes up again.

“Um… what did you call me for?”

Shoot. She really didn’t plan this far ahead. Chaewon decides to says the first thing that comes to her mind, which is the truth.

“I--I wanted to talk to you. While I’m still on this train of thought, I think... I want to meet you too.” She ends up quickly mumbling the last part, being more honest that she’d like to be. Somehow when she’s talking to Yerim, her brain feels like it’s running marathons just to keep up with everything. “Is that bad?”

There isn’t an immediate response from Yerim and Chaewon panics.

In the span of half a second, she’s already praying to whatever Gods up there to take mercy on her, thinking she goofed up her chance.

“...I know a bakery that should still be open until 11. I’m hungry, I slept through dinner and I think I want to meet you now too.” Yerim’s voice is nervous, but also confident somehow. “As they say… let’s get this bread?”

It doesn’t take Yerim to say it twice for her to leap out of bed, quickly pulling on a hoodie to be quickly presentable. Chaewon breaks into a sprint once she leaves the door of her house, going as fast as her legs can take her.

The excuse she used to her parents was that her friends invited her to have dinner, and considering it’s still her birthday, they were all too happy to let her leave the house.

The butterflies in her stomach feel like they’ve broken free, and it’s nauseating but exciting all the same.

Rounding the corner, she sees a familiar sight in front of her. It’s the girl she’s grown so fond of, who’s twirling her twin-tail and staring off into the distance. _It’s her!_

“Yerimmie!” Chaewon shouts and all but leaps at her. Yerim jumps at the sound, and then almost immediately gets thrown slightly off-balance from the tackle (Chaewon’s too light to actually do any devastating impact).

“C-Chaewon? You’re so excited-- didn’t you just see me this afternoon?” The taller girl giggles from the sudden affection, face flushed. Chaewon just nods into the hug... Yerim’s suddenly too fluffy and warm to un-hug. Who cares if she’s being obviously affectionate right now, it’s not like she can fall anymore in love with this girl.

“Are you gonna let go or are we walking into the bakery hugging like this?”

“My motto for the night is to act as embarrassing as possible.” Chaewon mumbles. “Plus, it’s my birthday.”

Wordlessly, Yerim wraps her arms back around Chaewon and begins shuffling sideways towards the bakery’s door like a crab. So they did just that -- crabwalking their way inside, only unhugging to grab the bread trays and tongs.

“Yerimmie… you’re actually shameless huh. I thought you were cool once.” Chaewon breaks the silence as she reaches over Yerim to grab a chocolate croissant.

“Says the person who begged to collab with me.” She doesn’t need to look back to know Yerim’s smiling away. She grabs another chocolate croissant.

Chaewon briefly wonders how they’ve gotten to this point where they can just snark at each other back and forth so quickly. Everything just clicks with Yerim, she thinks, everything is just right.

With bread stacked on bread on their trays, the pair coordinates their waddle towards the cashier and then outside, towards the nearest bench. It’s either amazing teamwork or a miracle that none of the pastries fell during their maneuver. They do a celebratory jump and of course, of course, one of her chocolate croissants slipped from the bag.

“F.” Chaewon curses.

“F.” Yerim adds, sympathetically.

...At least she bought two croissants.

 

\--

 

They both uncrab and sit down on the bench, and silence’s left filling up the air. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a wordless kind of silence as they both munch on the pastries.

“You called me weird, but Chaewon… you’re actually really weird too.” That nearly makes the blonde choke on her piece of bread.

“H-How so?”

“It’s like… you’re not afraid. Like consequences don’t exist at all for you.” Yerim looks away, and her cheeks are red, betraying her calm demeanor. Her expression seems troubled somehow, and Chaewon can’t pinpoint exactly how. “Maybe it’s not all that bad.”

“I don’t know about how being impulsive is good. I am actually afraid a lot of the times so it’s probably more of a destructive character trait instead.” The older girl’s anxieties suddenly come pouring out in one reply, despite her attempts to laugh it off. Yerim doesn’t seem fazed, however, as she reaches down to hold her hand.

Yerim’s hand is warm, like the sun. Everything about Yerim is so warm, even her gaze towards Chaewon now.

“How is it destructive when… When I feel braver with you?”

The response leaves Chaewon stunned.

“From the moment I met you… You’ve gone out of your way to do something brave. And every time it’s a reminder that I need to put myself out there too, to be like you more. Maybe that’s why I-- uh. Um.” Yerim cuts herself short, quickly looking away. Chaewon’s heart leaps out of her chest, wondering if she’s going to say that. The atmosphere seems tenser all of a sudden.

They’re both out of words suddenly, neither ready to continue the conversation.

The brunette speaks up once again, switching the topic suddenly. Chae feels a wave of relief and sadness wash over her.

“Um, why not we film one of those TikToks while we are here together?”

Her smile warm but tense, Yerim pulls out her phone. Chaewon leans closer as the other girl quickly presses record. Silence, again. Yerim didn’t choose a song to go along with the TikTok, which wouldn’t be unusual unless she had told the blonde girl what to do first. _Amature_ , Chaewon thinks to herself and turns to correct the other girl

“Yerim, did you f--” She couldn’t complete her sentence as a pair of lips are pressed against her own. It’s quick and hasty and leaves her lips sooner than its stay. Yet Yerim was close, _so close_ , that she could taste the chocolate on her breath.

Chaewon looks up to see Yerim looking away from her. The younger girl’s eyes are a bit glossy, as if she’s about to cry but have resolved to stay strong.

“Chaewon… you are such a confusing person to be with.”

The sudden remark leaves the blonde girl even more confused. Yerim’s roasting her now? After the kiss, out of all possible times?

“And normally I beat around bush forever before I can admit to all this, but with you-- I-- I just stop thinking. Maybe that’s how... I fell for you so quickly.”

In front of her eyes, Yerim feels so small with her shoulders slump down defeatedly. With a gentle movement, so gentle since she’s afraid Yerim would shatter otherwise, Chaewon reaches to cup the girl’s cheeks in her hands. And Yerim doesn’t push her away but clings her hands onto the blonde’s arms. Chaewon pulls the brunette’s face closer to her until their foreheads touch. Her beating heart, which would normally be a cause of anxiety for Chaewon suddenly feels like strength. Yerim needs her right now.

“I think I like you too.”

Yerim finally looks back up at her, starry-eyed. Chaewon pushes their lips close together and everything falls back in order.

 

\--

 

Things have more or less settled down throughout the following months, thank god.

A loud thump from the living room makes her jump. Chaewon looks up from the cake batter she’s stirring with the cake mixer, despite Hyejoo’s warning not to. Though, it wasn’t much of a warning when Hyejoo’s staring at her 3DS screen throughout the conversation. Something about it being payback.

“Chae, if you want, I can take over with the cake.” Hyunjin gives an understanding smile. She’s standing next to her, cutting strawberries for the dessert.

“Really? Thank you so much!” The sudden kindness is shocking to Chaewon, so Hyunjin _is_ a nice person after all. She quickly hands over the mixer to the taller girl.

“No problem, it’s just if I don’t take over you’re going to add salt instead of sugar again somehow. And spill this everywhere.” Chaewon’s face falls while Hyunjin’s smirk rises. Hyunjin is officially a demon again.

“I’m kidding, go see your girl.”

The dining room is still in one piece somehow, save for a stray chair knocked over which she guesses is the source of the noise from earlier. In the middle of the room is Sooyoung clinging onto Yerim, who’s flailing her arms around to stay in balance.

“Yerimmieee, let Sooyoungie unnie hug your annoying orange looking face.” Sooyoung whines, clearly already had way too much to drink. Yerim’s just laughing her face off, trying with little force to push Sooyoung off.

“Sooyoung, what’s with you and giving horrible nicknames when drunk?” Jinsoul laughs, also trying to help pull Sooyoung away to no avail. She squeals and jumps back when Sooyoung tries to drunkenly kick at her with her leg, not wanting to be interrupted.

“She’s always like that, stupidly affectionate when drunk.” Jiwoo smiles fondly as she’s setting cutleries onto the table.

“Hyejoo, can you get off your Gameboy and help us set the table?” Haseul nags, obviously just not wanting to do any work, considering how she doesn’t have a single item in her hands. Hyejoo only quietly mutters back that it’s a 3DS, not a Gameboy, otherwise not complying at all.

“Leave us alone unnie. She’s just preparing to have her butt kicked by my butt kicking shiny Pokemons.” Yeojin pipes up, way too loud as always.

Haseul rolls her eyes. “Yeojin, you’re like 16. You know you can swear, right?”

“I can??”

This information somehow manages to shock Yeojin so much that she doesn’t spare a second glance for her shiny Zubat fainting. The snot green Zubat poofs with a sad screech and Hyejoo does a fist pump. Chaewon rolls her eyes, as it's not _that_ impressive to beat a Zubat, but doesn't say anything.

Somehow their friend groups have merged seamlessly, almost as if they’ve known each other forever at this point. In actuality, this isn’t everyone who’s coming over for dinner, some are just running late. Heejin, Jungeun, and Kahei had texted earlier that they’re stuck in traffic. Chaewon shakes her head at it all, walking directly to the centre of the room.

Yerim’s eyes light up when she notices her approaching. Her smile brightens and she just looks so adorable Chaewon wants to _yell_.

“Chaewonnie! Help me! Sooyoung's gone wild!”

Chaewon pulls out her phone, grinning, she taps record. “No, this is way too funny.”

“You’re horrible!” Yerim squeaks, her words light and without any malice.

Sooyoung perks up, finally noticing Chaewon standing across from her. Suddenly Sooyoung is marching over with Yerim pulled along and Chaewon gets squished in the older girl’s arms too. “You kids love each other okay? Because Sooyoungie unnie loves you too.” Sooyoung slurs, before Jinsoul finally manages to untangle her from of them, dragging her far away from the pair.

Suddenly in one fell swoop, there's only the two of them standing in the middle of the room, clinging on to each other. Chaewon and Yerim can only laugh at how ridiculous everything is right now. Yerim gives her a soft peck on the cheek and Chaewon feels the butterflies stirring again.

“Are you gonna post that?” Her _girlfriend_ gestures to the phone in her hands.

The video’s just of Yerim being squished in Sooyoung’s arm as the older girl staggers towards the camera. The video cuts off just before Sooyoung squishes Chaewon into the hug too. Sooyoung is just out of focus enough throughout the whole video that she can pass off as a cryptid. It’s hilarious, she admits, but it’s also a precious memory Chaewon won’t trade for anything else.

“Yeah.” She scrolls to choose the edgy Markiplier filter and presses the post button. "Why not?"

**Author's Note:**

> i think this is the longest fic i've ever written, all in such a short amount of time too.
> 
> and yes markiplier is like, really edgy,


End file.
